Free community Earth Care workshop on Sunday

December 3, 2015, Farmington Hills, Michigan – Learn how to save energy and money, preserve the planet and help win $5 million for the cities of Farmington and Farmington Hills at a free, one-hour, energy efficiency workshop this Sunday, Dec. 6 at the First Presbyterian Church of Farmington.

This free Energy Efficiency workshop, co-hosted by Michigan Interfaith Power & Light and Consumers Energy, will provide homeowners practical steps to conserve energy at home and save money. The workshop will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Knox Fellowship Hall, following the 10:00 a.m. Sunday worship in the Sanctuary and a brief, complimentary coffee service.

“All faith traditions teach us to be good stewards of the Earth,” said Rev, Jim Faile, pastor at First Farmington. “Conserving energy helps protect God’s creation and the health of our communities. Because Michigan generates more than half of its energy by burning coal, and because the state’s asthma rates are 25% higher than the national average, conserving energy is one important way to respond to the spiritual call to love our neighbors and care for Creation.”

Farmington and Farmington Hills have joined 49 other semifinalists for the Georgetown University Energy Prize in developing a long-term energy efficiency plan, and are now demonstrating its initial effectiveness and sustainability over a two-year period.

The two neighboring cities are among 50 semifinalist cities (with only three in Michigan) competing for the Energy Prize. This multi -year, $5 million prize was born of a mission to tap the imagination, creativity, and spirit of competition between communities across the country to develop sustainable energy-saving innovations.

Through this competition, communities are challenged to work together with their local governments and utilities in order to develop and begin implementing plans for innovative, replicable, scalable and continual reductions in the per capita energy consumed from local natural gas and electric utilities.

The First Presbyterian Church of Farmington is located at 26165 Farmington Road at 11 Mile Road in Farmington Hills. For more information, please contact the church office at (248) 474-6170 or visit the church website at www.farmington-pres.org. More information about the Georgetown University Energy Prize is available at https://guep.org/about-the-prize/.